Since 1958, the Honors Program at Manoa has accommodated lively and intelligent students who are willing to accept the challenge of courses that demand more than the usual. Membership in UHM Honors enhances a student's undergraduate career as he or she becomes familiar with Manoa's strengths: one of only 12 land-sea-, and space-grant institutions in the U.S.; a large and diverse faculty of national and international eminence; undergraduate degrees in 88 academic and professional fields of study, with opportunities for interdisciplinary and custom-made courses; and library and research facilities equal or superior to those of many better-known colleges and universities on the mainland.

From its inception, the Honors Program at Manoa has been a force for change within the University of Hawaii's undergraduate curriculum, trailblazing for programs as varied as College Opportunities and Women's Studies. For example, Honors pioneered the self-designed major, and credit/no credit grading. In addition, the Honors Program was an early promoter of both service learning and Learning Communities as vehicles for curricular innovation.

For promising and highly motivated undergraduate students, the Honors Program offers unusual academic opportunities; it is meant to be a valuable complement to students' academic and professional careers, helping them to realize their potential. For those with the curiosity and the innovative spirit that appreciate new opportunities, the Honors Program provides a place within the ordinary curriculum that fosters the extraordinary. For those who participate fully, the lower-division Selected Studies curriculum as well as the junior-senior Honors courses provide many of the advantages of the small liberal arts college as well as the variety, the breadth of choice, and the scholarly resources of an excellent research university.

Honors Reading Room: Sinclair Library, Room 504, is reserved for Honors students and for their guests, if space allows. The facilities include a lounge; a study area; computers and printers reserved only for Honors students (the computers have access to email as well as the World Wide Web and feature word-processing software and CD-ROM reader); lockers where one may leave personal articles; and a small library of books, magazines, and honors theses. Students may use the Reading Room whenever Sinclair Library is open.